Such connection arrangements are known, for example, in presses in which the stroke-executing slide is connected at at least one pull or push point to at least one force- and movement-transmitting drive unit. DE 10 2011 052 860 A1, for example, describes a press having a bottom drive where the drive unit is designed as what is known as a pull rod and can be connected by means of a releasable connection, such as, for example, a screw connection.
On the other hand, in a press having a top drive, the drive unit is designed as a push element or as a pull element and is connected correspondingly at a pull or push point.
In presses with both a top drive and with a bottom drive, a compact type of construction and a low overall height assume importance in economic terms, and, therefore the connection arrangements of said pull or push elements must also meet special structural and functional requirements.
Poor accessibility for maintenance and repair work is thus considered to be a disadvantage when, during demounting and remounting as a consequence of maintenance or transport, the force- and movement-transmitting drive units, for example, in presses with a bottom drive, the pull rods can be released and remounted only with great effort and in a complicated way.
This may be pertinent when, for an already proposed press with a bottom drive (as described in DE 10 2011 052 860 A1), the pull rods which transmit drive to the slide and which are connected in each case by means of a screw and nut at the pull/push point of the slide must be demounted and remounted for maintenance and repair work.
Connection arrangements for force- and movement-transmitting drive units for generic machines, such as presses, comprise machine elements known in many variations. For example, DE 28 47 478 A1 describes a circumferential part, a gearwheel and a locking nut. U.S. Pat. No. 6,715,409 B2 describes a connecting screw, an adjusting nut and a piston part. U.S. Pat. No. 5,791,240 A describes a cylinder body, a screw nut and a piston rod. By means of such solutions alone, however, complex problems such as special structural and functional requirements in presses both with top drive and with bottom drive in terms of a compact type of construction and a low overall height and/or accessibility for maintenance and repair work relating to the demounting and remounting of pull rods in presses with bottom drive, cannot be solved cost-effectively without further effort.